Welcome to the first edition of the Insafe Weekly Update for 2025.

A final reminder that assessment platform submissions are now due for helplines and hotlines (login first) reporting on the fourth quarter of 2024 (October - December inclusive). The deadline for both helpline and hotline submissions is the close of business on Friday, 10 January 2025. Please remember that this submission must be made using the assessment platform in the new BIK community.

The Excel template for helplines is now available in the new BIK community (login first). A reminder, also, that the Good practice guide on helpline data (March 2023) can also be accessed in the BIK community here (login first). In addition, a short guide will be emailed to all helplines this week. For further information, please contact Karl (helplines).

The Excel template for hotlines is now available in the new BIK community (login first). Please contact Abby (INHOPE) for any queries regarding hotline submissions.

The awareness data form in the assessment platform(requires login) is open for submissions until Friday, 17 January 2025. The data submitted should cover the period of 1 January - 31 December 2024. The current Excel data form templates can be found here (please do not use templates from earlier periods). A recording of the recent awareness data collection and submission training can be accessed here. For any questions, please contact Eray.

Following the success of the helpline early warning meetings, the temporary working group which was set up to look at how best to share public concerns and possible trends and emerging issues decided that an early warning meeting for awareness centres would be useful. These meetings will take place every six weeks and will providean opportunity to share any current challenges in your country, any new research that has been published, and any new and emerging trends.

The first meeting will take place on Tuesday, 7 January 2025 at 14:00 CET; use this link to join the meeting. All colleagues are welcome regardless of whether you have anything to share. For further information, please contact Karl.

There will be an online meeting with Discord on Tuesday, 21 January 2025 at 16:30 CET to hear the latest updates regarding privacy and safety on the platform as well as other developments. Use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

The next helpline early warning group meeting will take place on Friday, 24 January 2025 at 11:00 CET; use this link to join the meeting. For further information, please contact Karl.

We call on all network members to actively participate in amplifying the new AdWiseOnline campaign's reach by spreading its messages and materials widely. Share and adapt the campaign materials within your own networks to help raise awareness about manipulative in-game marketing practices. The AdWiseOnline campaign runs from Monday, 6 January until Sunday, 16 February 2025, and your participation is key to making it a success across the EU.

The campaign provides a variety of resources designed to support parents, caregivers, teachers, educators, and other professionals in guiding young consumers through marketing traps in online games. Key activities include the 'Game of terms' social media initiative with youth videos, collaborations with influencers on Instagram and Twitch, podcasts and webinars, educational modules, and much more.

For full details, including access to the promotional pack that you can localise to your national context, please visit the AdWiseOnline section on the BIK public portal. For any questions or specific requests, please contact Inna.

Our new MOOC, Child Online Safety: What educators need to know, is a free online course designed to help educators understand and address the challenges young people face in digital spaces. Launching on Monday, 3 February 2025 (and running until 12 March 2025), the course covers critical topics such as mental health, cyberbullying, persuasive design, and consumer protection, equipping participants with practical strategies to foster safer and more responsible internet use.Learn more about the MOOC, and encourage teachers and educators in your country to enrol!

A reminder that Safer Internet Day (SID) 2025 will be marked by a global day of focus on Tuesday, 11 February 2025, and events and activities will take place throughout the whole month, across Europe and the globe!

Ally - the new Safer Internet Day mascot
The editable design files for Ally - the new Safer Internet Day mascot - are now available in the new BIK community (log in first) or by emailing the SID helpdesk directly.

[REMINDER] SID video 
Given the recent change of mascot, and to give Ally a proper introduction to everyone involved in the SID celebrations, we are currently working on an updated version of the SID video including the new mascot and visual identity. We are looking forward to showing you thefinal result, but in the meantime, we can share that it’s going to be similar to the current SID video, as in it will have the same script (and voiceover) in English, which as you know is already available with subtitles in all EU languages. Therefore, once again this year, we offer the possibility to SICs to produce a localised version of the SID video, if you’re able to provide us with a voiceover in your national language. If you’re interested in exploring this option, please contact Annarita. 

For those who have provided a voiceover in recent years, we will automatically take care of integrating this in the new version and will be in touch in due course with further information. In all instances, the new video will be available towards the end of this month.

Sharing network SID plans
As mentioned at the recent Insafe Training meeting, we have once again made an online document available for SICs and SIC+ countries to share their SID plans with other members of the network. A reminder that this is an internal document only, to allow network members to see the plans of other SIC/SIC+ organisations, and to make connections where there are synergies. The EC also refer to this regularly to help inform SID planning. Please update the document regularly as your plans progress. 

Updating SID public profile pages
Information on updating public SID profile pages will be shared soon.

[REMINDER] Reporting on SID 2025 actions
Following the redevelopment of the BIK platform, reporting for Safer Internet Day will now be conducted through the BIK community and aligned with the tools used for assessment platform uploads (including an Excel file upload for those SICs who prefer to work that way).

We will share more information and instructions soon, but given that we are now recognising SID as a whole month of activities, we will seek to gather statistics for both the global day of celebration (11/02) and the full campaign period (01/02 - 28/02). To enable us to benefit from the campaign momentum in follow-up activities, completed SID reports should be uploaded by the close of business on Tuesday, 11 March 2025.

In case of questions or queries
Please feel free to contact the SID helpdesk with any further questions regarding the 2025 campaign.

Articles
Recently published articles include:

• Minecraft world on cybersecurity presented at Lisbon Games Week 2024
• AdWiseOnline: Manipulative marketing practices in online gaming
• New cybersecurity activity: Code Hunters – Escape game
• Young people in focus at national conference in Sweden
• BEE SECURE Radar 2024: Report on the use of ICT by young people in Luxembourg

Article submissions
Thanks to Safer Internet Centres for all the article submissions over recent weeks. We are working through these and will publish them as soon as possible; we will update you on the planned publication date and URL in due course. Please note that any articles submitted over this timeframe can still be counted towards the lump sum mechanism 2024, even if they are not yet live.

Need some support?
Please contact the BIK content mailbox with any article submissions or in case of any queries.

Resource submissions
There have been a large number of resource submissions over recent weeks. Please note that the new BIK platform has a workflow moderation process, and resources will not appear live until the BIK Coordination Team approves them. Please bear with us while we clear the backlog from the festive break. Please note that any resources submitted over this timeframe can still be counted towards the lump sum mechanism 2024, even if they are not yet live.

Helpline case study submissions
Similarly, there have been a large number of helpline case study submissions over recent weeks. Please note that the new BIK platform has a workflow moderation process, and case studies will not appear live until the BIK Coordination Team approves them. Please bear with us while we clear the backlog from the festive break. Please note that any case studies submitted over this timeframe can still be counted towards the lump sum mechanism 2024, even if they are not yet live.

Need some support?
If you have questions about any aspect of the new BIK platform, please use the contact form on the BIK platform or contact us via the BIK support mailbox.

Please note the updated URLs for the new BIK platform:

• Better Internet for Kids (BIK) on the new public platform:
  better-internet-for-kids. europa.eu; #BIK; #BIKbulletin
• BIK strategy (BIK+) on the new BIK platform:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/bik/bik-plus-strategy; #BIKplus
• Safer Internet Forum (SIF) on the new BIK platform:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/sif; #SIF2024, #SaferInternetForum
• BIK Knowledge hub on the new BIK platform:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/knowledge-hub; #BIKPolicyMap
• BIK Youth on the new BIK platform:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/bik-youth; #BIKyouth; #Pledge2Youth
• Safer Internet Day (SID) on the new BIK platform:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/saferinternetday; #SID2025; #SaferInternetDay
• Media literacy campaign on the new BIK platform:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/media-smart-online; #MediaSmartOnline
• Child and youth consumer protection campaign on the new BIK platform:
  better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/adwiseonline; #AdWiseOnline
• Project Facebook profiles:
  Insafe, Safer Internet Day, Insafe network closed Facebook group, INHOPE
• Project X (formerly Twitter) profiles:
  @insafenetwork; @safeinternetday; @BIK_youth; @inhope_pr
• Project LinkedIn profile:
  Better Internet for Kids